Advances in electronic communications technologies have interconnected people and allowed for distribution of information perhaps better than ever before. To illustrate, personal computers, handheld devices, mobile phones, set-top box devices, and other electronic access devices are increasingly being used to access, store, download, share, and/or otherwise process various types of media content (e.g., video, audio, photographs, and/or multimedia).
Many users of such access devices would be interested in accessing enhanced content associated with a media content instance while the media content instance is being presented by way of one of the above-mentioned access devices if given the opportunity to do so. For example, many users would enjoy accessing additional information associated with a particular scene in a television program, purchasing items similar to those included in the television program, and/or discovering additional media content featuring various characters included in the television program while the television program is being presented. In current implementations, the user must provide substantial user input (e.g., enter one or more keywords into a search engine, navigate to a website associated with the media content instance, etc.) in order to access such enhanced content. This is cumbersome, distracting, and difficult to perform for many users while they watch or otherwise experience the media content instance. Hence, many users do not even attempt to access enhanced content associated with a media content instance while the media content instance is being presented.